Oh! sweep chimney, sweep!
You maidens shake off sleep
If you my cry can follow.
I climb the chimney top,
Without ladder without rope,
Aye and there! aye and there! aye and there you shall hear me halloo!

Arise! maids, arise!
Unseal and rub your eyes.
Arise and do your duty.
I summon yet again
And do not me disdain,
That my call, that my call, that my calling's poor and sooty.

Behold! here I stand!
With brush and scrape in hand.
As a soldier that stands on his sentry.
I work for the better sort,
And well they pay me for't.
O I work, O I work, O I work for the best of the gentry.

Oh! sweep chimney, sweep!
The hours onward creep.
Clear away and take
The smut that others make.
O I clean, O I clean, O I clean what others dirty.

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Songs of the West by S. Baring-Gould.

Notes:
Notes abridged from S. Baring-Gould.

Taken down from J.Helmore, miller, South Brent. The first verse occurs in one of James Catnach's chap-books: 'The Cries of London.' 1815.
The tune is possibly based on one used by the Savoyard sweeps.

Roud: 1217 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
Laws:
Child: